


Broken Record

by Crime_Scene



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Reminiscing, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Songfic, Time Skips, like...a lot, pining shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 03:17:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9697301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crime_Scene/pseuds/Crime_Scene
Summary: A look through Shiro and Keith's relationship at various points in time.(Songfic based on the song "Broken Record" by Shakira)





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work on the fandom! Beta'd by my wonderful GWWW Miri. Hope you enjoy!

_“I'm older but you're wiser than anyone can see”_

 Shiro doesn’t think of himself as wise, you see, responsible? Yes. Does he think of himself as bright? How could he not, when everyone in the Garrison referred to him as “The Golden Boy” because of his good grades. But wise? He has never.

 However, ever since he met Keith, he has always thought he was one of the wisest (if not the most) people in that entire institution.

 For example, there was that time when Shiro was in his third year at the Garrison (and Keith in his first) and they had known each other for as long as three months, and they were eating at the cafeteria.

_Shiro has never been so happy that it was Tuesday. That day, precisely, was pizza day, which meant his hands were occupied with a plate chock-full of pizza when he saw Keith sitting by himself in his usual table, eating his own slice of pizza._

_“Keith!” Shiro greeted excitedly when he got closer, making Keith close his jaw suddenly._

_“You fucker! You made me bite my own tongue!” Keith groaned, and Shiro chuckled sheepishly._

_“I’m sorry Keith, I just can’t hold myself, it has been so long since I’ve tasted some pizza.” he excused as he was sitting down in the seat across from Keith. “Do you want one of my slices?” Keith raised an eyebrow at him._

_“Are you serious? Why did you grab that many pizza slices?” Shiro scoffed, as if the answer was obvious._

_“Because I wanted to take them before they ran out! And I really wanted to share with you…” Shiro beamed while Keith frowned._

_“But why would you do that?” Keith said, narrowing his eyes._

_“Because you’re my friend?” Shiro answered with confusion clear in his voice._

_“Do you really trust me after knowing me for, what? Two months?” Keith doesn’t sound suspicious now, just confused._

_“Yeah, why shouldn’t I?” And Keith sighed._

_“Shiro, as the friend you really think of me, I really want you to know that not everybody is to be trusted.” Shiro made an indignant huff._

_“Of course I know that, what do you think I am, a ki--“ Keith’s disbelieving stare cut him off._

_“Look, Shiro, we really don’t know each other that much, and I’m not going to tell you any personal stories right now.” Keith warned. “But I just have to say that if you really wear your heart in your sleeve like that, someone is going to take advantage of you.” he said, with a concerned but steely face, as if he didn’t really want to show a lot of emotions._

 Shiro didn’t really understand it back then, but that was when he started to feel himself pulled into Keith’s orbit — at that time, though, it was just to protect him, to comfort him.

_“You’re patient like no other has even been with me”_

 Ever since Shiro came back from the Galra’s imprisonment, everyone treated him like he was made of porcelain instead of trying to understand what was happening inside his head. Which, even if done with good intentions, made Shiro feel fragile.

“Oh! Hey, Shiro! I was just finishing here at the training room, just wait a minute and you’ll have it all to yourself!”

“Guys, we shouldn’t try to argue with Shiro, you know, he’s the leader!”

“Shiro, try this recipe I mixed up here! Don’t worry, you can be totally honest with me.”

 Everyone but Keith.

“Shiro, have you been having trouble sleeping? Allura told me about these Altean pills that totally knock you out.” said Keith once when he saw Shiro at the observatory one night he couldn’t sleep.

“Yeah, kind of, but—“

“She told me those pills gave you dreamless sleep.” He interrupted, and he smirked softly when he saw Shiro’s eyes widen because he knew he had won.

“Shiro, why don’t you go to the pod? You seem a little battered up after that battle.”

“I’m actually feeling pretty fine, I just have to---“

“Don’t worry about that, I already told Hunk to help Allura with all the diplomatic business with the citizens of that planet we just came from.” He said, with an air of finality in his voice. “Come on, I’ll help you there.”

 It was pretty frustrating for Shiro, actually, because Keith didn’t need Shiro to tell him what was happening inside his head. He already knew.

 And that realization shook him deeply, because he had been trying really hard to conceal those feelings he had been holding since their Garrison days.

 It’s just that it’s Keith’s mission to fuck all of Shiro’s plans up.

_“_ _Your eyes take me to places_ _/I've never dreamt about”_

 Whenever people asked Shiro what his favorite color was, he would always say it was black.

 That was before meeting Keith, however.

 Whenever he looked at Keith’s eyes, he felt like he is too undeserving to enjoy their beauty. One day, he finally ended up confessing to Keith.

_“Shiro, why do you always avoid looking me in the eye?” Keith asked. He didn’t sound angry, just curious and perhaps a bit suspicious._

 Keith asked this after their second year of knowing each other. The Kerberos mission was just a possibility, a rumor that was starting to spread among the garrison recruits. Everybody thought that Shiro was probably the best candidate for the pilot position, but he hadn’t even been asked about it yet.

_“W-what?” Shiro (very eloquently) sputtered._

_“You know exactly what I mean.” Keith said, pointing at Shiro. “Like, whenever I try to hold a conversation with you, you just look at anything that isn’t my eyes. You have talked with me while looking at my ear, the other time you were looking at the poster behind me, and don’t forget when—“_

_“I get it! I get it! Geez…” Shiro interrupted, feeling hotter by the collar with every passing minute “It’s actually pretty embarrassing.”_

_Shiro was keenly aware of his inability to hold eye contact with Keith for too long, and one of the biggest reasons at fault for that was the soup of feelings brewing inside of him that was pretty much ready to explode every time he looked at those beautiful purple eyes._

_“Go on? I don’t think there’s something more embarrassing than what Matt told me about the time you accidentally called your professor “Dad” while you were doing one of the simulators in front of everybody.”_

_“That was ONE time!” Shiro exclaimed, an octave higher than his usual voice, feeling his face getting hotter by the minute. “It’s just… um… I think your eyes are very pretty?” And Keith just looked impressed for a second._

_And then he laughed._

_“Oh my god Shiro, really? Are my eyes going to seduce you or something?” Keith sniggered as if he had said the funniest thing ever._

_“I-It’s not that!”_

_“Oh, come on, accept it, my charm is going to get you around my finger in just one second, you just haven’t let me take advantage of their full potential.” he said, and then, looking at Shiro from under his lashes he added: “Am I pretty?”_

_And Shiro, acting as if that wasn’t affecting him and he wasn’t trying to stop himself from screaming_ ‘YES’, _answered in the most annoyed tone he could offer “God, I hate you so much.” and Keith just started a full-blown laugh._

 Ever since he met Keith, his answer to that question would be: “Purple”.

_“_ _Your voice is the only music I can't do without_ _”_

 Shiro has been always grateful that when he escaped from the Galra’s imprisonment the first voice he got to hear besides those annoying scientists was Keith’s.

 That gravelly and serene voice has always driven Shiro mad, even more in the Garrison when Shiro was twenty years old and just out of his hormonal excess stage.

 But Keith’s voice doesn’t only make Shiro frisky, it has always given him a sense of security, of comfort.

 So it only made sense that when Shiro first heard Keith sing, he couldn’t do anything else but stand frozen in place.

_“Hey, Keith? I need to ask you something about—“ Shiro started as he walked into Keith’s dorm room. He cut himself off when he heard a soft sound coming from Keith’s bed._

_When he finally processed what he was seeing, he understood that Keith was singing with his headphones on, most probably listening to whatever song he_ _was singing, and that’s when Shiro felt himself fall a bit deeper._

_His voice was soft, but husky, and he sang like he was serenading somebody._

_And Shiro couldn’t do anything but stare, frozen, and fall in love more and more._

 Keith also likes to sing Shiro to sleep whenever he sees him walking through the corridors after a pretty bad nightmare (“That’s what friends do, right?”).

 And those are the times when Shiro sleeps best.

_“_ _There can't be any doubts now/we’re just too far ahead to look behind/and above the good and bad_ _”_

 After they arrived to the castle, Green a bit battered down and Blue almost getting destroyed, Keith took off his helmet and strode over to Shiro.

“Shiro, why the fuck didn’t you let me attack those fleets? I would have been perfectly fine!” Keith demanded.

“Keith, it would have been too dangerous!”

“But what’s the point? I can’t give it a shot if I don’t risk myself! We don’t know what could have happened!”

“But that’s not the case, I can’t let you die!”

“Oh right, of course, because you want me to lead Voltron don’t you? You’ve already given me that spiel Shiro, and I know! But you’re not dying anytime soon!”

“It’s not that, Keith--!”

“So what, then? You seem pretty keen on letting everybody know you’re going to die or some---“

**“I can’t let you risk your life because I love you!”** Shiro cried out, and then froze.

 Keith opened his mouth, and then closed it. “Well, Shiro, we have been friends for a long time haven’t we? I actually expected you to love me like a fri—“

“No, Keith, I don’t love you like a friend, I never really did.”

“Like a brother, then?”

“Keith…” Shiro sighed, then threw all of his caution to the wind (he had nothing to lose) and kissed Keith, who froze for a minute, before letting himself melt into the kiss.

“So _that’s_ why you can’t look at me in the eye, huh?” And Shiro rolled his eyes affectionately before shutting him up with his lips.

_“_ _I need you to believe in my word_  
I feel like a broken record  
And I've told you 700 times  
I don't need to keep looking  
My search is done __  
Can you put your trust in my word?  
I sound like a broken record  
and I've said it 700 times  
I don't need to keep looking  
you are the one”

 It has been five months (or whatever time has passed in that ship, he guesses it has been months) since their kiss, and Shiro still feels like it was a dream, he keeps trying to pinch himself awake.

 Unfortunately for Shiro, all of the Paladins were there when the Big Confession (and then kiss) happened. Fortunately for him, they were really supportive of it (Pidge even congratulated him… He feels like Matt is at fault for this).

 However, there was this anxiety that Keith had every once in a while that Shiro could never squash completely, and it was one of those anxious moments in which Shiro found him one day in his quarters, curled in a fetal position on his bed.

“Babe, what’s wrong?” Shiro asked with a concerned frown.

“It’s nothing, Takashi,” was Keith’s answer, as he tried to avoid Shiro’s eyes.

“Keith, please,” he begged softly as he sat at Keith’s side by his bed.

“It’s just…” Keith sighed “I have been thinking: what if you get sick of me? Though most of my thoughts asked **when** you will get sick of me…”

“Keith…” Shiro said, but Keith wasn’t looking at him.

“Keith.” he tried again.

“Keith!”

“What!” Keith snapped, looking at Shiro’s eyes, vulnerable.

“I don’t care how many times I’ll have to repeat this until you understand but I will start by saying it the first time: you’re it for me, Keith” Shiro confessed, and he felt a weight off his shoulders (even if he started to feel a bit anxious)

“It? Do you mean as in like… The one for you?” Keith asked, softly but charged with hope.

“Yes, Keith, you’re the one. I don’t care how many times I will have to repeat it to make you understand, I don’t care that I’ll sound like a broken record, but I’ve been in love with you since our times in the Garrison, and I don’t think anything is ever going to change that.”

“… Even when you discovered I am part Galra?” Keith asked, and his voice broke at the last word, as if he isn’t going to be able to hold any tears back for long.

“My love, I love you so much, you being Galra has not changed that fact not even a little.” Keith sniffed, and hugged Shiro as hard as he could.

“I love you too, Shiro, you don’t know how much…”

_“Your hands that have no mercy_ _/are also my best friends”_

 What Shiro noticed pretty soon when he and Keith got together, was that Keith was pretty tactile: whenever they talked Keith would grab Shiro’s hand; when Shiro rested on Keith’s lap he would start playing with his hair; when they kissed, Keith’s hands would try to roam every road and crevice on Shiro’s body.

 Shiro loved it.

 And the others noticed, too.

 Allura had called him to talk one day, and he couldn’t have imagined what the reason was going to be.

“Shiro! Hello, I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while” she said beaming, but with a curious expression on her face.

“Oh, of course princess, what did you want to talk about?”

“So, Keith and you are mates, right?” she affirmed first, as if she was meaning to ask something after that question was answered.

“Yes, we are, why do you ask?”

“Are all human mates THAT touchy?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“W-what? I don’t know what you mean, could you specify?” Shiro said, starting to feel flustered by the road this conversation was taking.

“It’s just…he is always seen touching you, as if he needs reassurance that you are not going to disappear or something like that, are all humans that possessive?” she clarified.

“I don’t think that counts as ‘possessive’, Allura, I guess it’s just that Keith likes to touch me?” Shiro regretted that as soon as it left his mouth, but it seemed like Allura paid it no attention.

“So you mean that Keith prefers to express his affection to you through physical actions? That’s so cute! It actually reminds me of an Altean fairy tale!”

“Oh, that’s interesting! Why don’t you ever tell us that fairy tale?” Shiro suggested with his interest piqued.

“Well Shiro, let’s see if I can tell you one of these days…” she said, and started to leave the room, but before she left through the door, she stood by the doorframe and turned to Shiro with a seemingly innocent smile. “I just hope Keith isn’t, um, ‘touching’ you like he so likes to do when I barge into your room to tell you the story!” and left Shiro sputtering while she kept walking and laughing.

_“And I can get lost climbing on your legs that never end/I found a perfect distance between my body on you/and that is no distance, dear if that's alright with you”_

 Shiro never thought of himself as the type of sappy person who would just _jump_ at their special one when they saw them after having some time apart from each other.

 Except that he is.

“Keith!” Shiro cried out happily when he saw the red-suited paladin coming out of his lion’s mouth, as Keith’s greeting was cut off when Shiro jumped and crossed his legs around his torso, making Keith lose his balance.

“Holy shit!” Keith said before making them both fall to the ground.

 Shiro had an apology on the tip of his tongue when Keith started laughing.

“Oh my god, Shiro!” he choked between breaths and smirked when he stopped laughing. “Did you really miss me that much? It was just one week.”

“U-Uh! I have no idea what you’re talking about…” Shiro retorted, but made no move to get out of his position sitting astride on Keith’s belly.

“Come here,” Keith said, bringing Shiro’s face to his with his hands and kissing him deeply, causing Shiro to let out a satisfied sound when their lips connected.

 Their kiss was soon interrupted when a disgusted sound came from the hangar entrance and they turned to the origin of the sound.

“Guys! Can’t you see there is a child present?” Lance chastised, pointing at Pidge with his thumb. “Ow! Pidge! That hurt!” he said, holding his side where Pidge elbowed him.

“Are you sure you aren’t talking about youself, Lance?” Pidge retorted, making Keith and Shiro chuckle and Lance let out an indignant sound.

“I’ll let you know that I’m one of the most mature members of our team!” Lance said, but it was lost on Keith and Shiro’s ears, as they started to kiss again.

_“They said we wouldn't make it/But look at how we've beaten all the odds_ _/I just need you to be aware of that”_

 Shiro was lying on Keith’s bed waking up after an adequate night of sleep, although it was pretty early.

 He was too comfortable to get out of bed, with Keith sleeping comfortably against his chest, so he just started to think.

_“Hey Takashi! Do you want to go to the cinema tonight? There’s this movie we thought you’d like to see!”_

_“No, thank you, I already made plans with Keith this night, but maybe another time?”_

_“God, Takashi, why do you keep hanging out with that guy? He’s so violent! They told me he has been in three fights this semester”_

_“Pfft, Keith would never!”_

 Shiro smiled even with that bitter-tasting memory, he would have never stopped hanging out with Keith even if he tried as they both pull into each other’s orbits too hard for them to be separated for a long time.

“Takashi… Go back to sleep…” came Keith’s sleep-ridden voice out of nowhere, snapping Shiro out of his reverie.

“I’m sorry, babe,” Shiro said, grinning shamelessly. “I was just thinking about our times in the Garrison.”

“Oh, what were you thinking of?” Keith yawned while he stretched.

“Remember that time when we were studying in the library when you almost threw a book at someone’s face?”

_“So what you mean is that even though you don’t believe in aliens you would really like to see one? How does that work?” Keith’s confusion was pretty obvious on that statement._

_“Well, it’s pretty simple, see—“_

_“Shirogane! I can’t believe I found you here” an unknown voice interrupted their conversation. Shiro was about to ignore them but they kept talking. “Is it true you will be going to the Kerberos mission?”_

_“That’s none of your fucking bus—” Keith tried to snarl but was cut off by Shiro._

_“Keith, please.” Shiro chastised “Well, it is true! They’ve been training me for some weeks now”_

_“Why are you with this…weirdo?” they said with a disgusted expression on their face and Keith just raised an unimpressed eyebrow._

_“Well because he is a good friend and he asked me for some help with his Chemistry homework” which was a lie, because Keith’s grades were even better than his._

_“God, Shiro, you’re just with him because you’re envious of his sim—“_

_“Can you please shut the fuck up?” Keith cut off coldly._

_“Who do you think you are? Why would I do what you say?”_

_“Because I have a book.” Keith answered, his fingers closing down on the book he brought for Shiro to borrow._

_“And?” but instead of answering, Keith just raised the book and made as if he was going to throw it._

_“Keith, no!” Shiro grabbed Keith’s elbow to stop him. He actually seemed almost amused rather than angry at the exchange._

_“This guy’s crazy!” said the no-face, and ran out of the library completely terrified._

“Oh, yeah. I surely remember that asshole…” Keith frowned, and then he saw Shiro’s blinding smile and turned his head in confusion. “What?”

“Don’t you get it? In the Garrison people were everywhere telling me to avoid you, but even if I had tried to that time I couldn’t have been able to because I was too into you to even notice.” Shiro explained, embarrassed, and Keith just smiled.

“It seems that we really proved them wrong, huh?” and Shiro just smiled in answer.

“Yeah… yeah we did” Shiro murmured fondly.

_“I just want you to take a leap of faith/No it's easy to make all the same mistakes/But I won't this time, no, not this time”_

“So, was I your first crush ever?” Shiro asked one day when they were hanging out in the Castle’s main room, Pidge and Hunk were fixing some machine in the castle’s kitchen that started overflowing with no apparent reason while Lance was in the Castle’s Altean pool after he discovered how to get inside.

“No you weren’t, there was this kid when I was in high school for which I was pretty much head over heels, was I yours?” Keith asked.

“Well, there was this guy when I was in my second year at the Garrison…” Shiro started but cut himself off, frowning. A sudden melancholy washed over Shiro.

“What about him?” Keith prompted softly, as if he didn’t want Shiro to feel forced to tell him.

“Well… It’s just… It was a pretty bad time for me.” Shiro sighed.

“What did he do?” Keith asked concernedly.

“No, it’s just… I fell in love pretty easily back then, and I got my hopes up pretty fast.” Shiro looked pretty sheepish “Matt knows about my pining pretty well as he was in his first year at the Garrison, so that means Pidge must know all about it too.”

“What was his name?” Keith asked curiously.

“His name was Richard, and he was in his third year at the Garrison.” he answered “We hooked up every now and then and I was the idiot who caught feelings.”

“Did you ever tell him about your crush?” Keith asked, pretty dully.

“Yes, I did… He literally just acted as if I never told him anything and stopped talking to me, it was pretty cold.”

“What an asshole!” Keith snarled indignantly.

“Yeah... But don’t worry about that babe, at least I am with you now.” Shiro said, smiling and grabbing Keith’s hand.

“And I’m pretty happy about that fact.” Keith answered smugly “I love you, Takashi,” he said before kissing Shiro’s hand lightly.

“I love you, too.” Shiro answered, with the goofiest smile he could muster.

_“A dozen icy summers were leading me to you/I had to hear the liars to recognize the truth”_

 Shiro doesn’t actually remember _when_ he started to fall in love with Keith, but the day he realized, he wasn’t actually with Keith in that moment.

_After hearing day after day things like_

_“You’re just envious of him”_

_“He’s just using you to go to Kerberos instead of you”_

_“He’s just a charity case to you, right?”_

_When a faceless cadet in the Garrison asked him if he was just using Keith for sex, he tried to stop himself from letting his jaw slack._

_“W-what?!?” Shiro asked, completely out of guard._

_“I just asked: are you and Keith just fuck-buddies? Like you’re just with him for sex, because that’s what it looks like.” the cadet explained._

_“What do you mean?” Shiro said, perplexed by the sole thought of wanting Keith just for hooking up._

_“Well, it’s just every time you think he’s not looking you look at him with such an expression in your face? Like, your pupils get mad wide and I thought it was lust” and Shiro felt pretty out of breath._

_“Um, I don’t look at Keith like that?” Shiro defended. “Sorry, I must get going.” he excused and kept walking the way he was headed._

_The stranger’s words had Shiro thinking. “Do I really look at Keith like that?” he murmured softly to himself, and then started looking in his phone for any candid picture Matt took of him while he was with Keith._

_There was a pic when they were in Keith’s room that was taken by a very silent Matt, in which Shiro looked enraptured by whatever Keith was saying, and, okay, maybe it’s just a coincidence?_

_Then Shiro found a pic where he and Keith were at the Rooftop, and Keith was looking at the stars with a face of open admiration, meanwhile Shiro had the same face as Keith, but he was looking at him._

 And that’s when Shiro noticed he was too deep in love… Thank god Keith reciprocated.

_“Remember the first Christmas/it almost seemed untrue”_

 It was their first Christmas after defeating Zarkon, and Shiro was preparing himself.

 He asked Keith for a night out together, a date, and Keith happily accepted. Shiro excitedly dressed up, without forgetting about that very important thing.

 They first went to the cinema, and then they went to have a picnic by the night sky; Shiro had everything perfectly planned.

“Keith, do you remember our first Christmas at the Garrison?” Shiro prompted, looking at Keith with an open expression of care even though he was trying to mask his nervousness the best he could.

“Of course I do, who wouldn’t remember the night you almost slipped at the middle of the hallway when someone spilled their eggnog?” Keith amusedly said with a smirk on his face.

“Why must you always remind me of that??” Shiro said with faux anger, but his smile betrayed it. “I was asking to see if you remembered what we promised?”

_“You promised that you'd always be with me”_

“Of course I do, you dork.” Keith said, smoothing out his smirk with a beaming expression. “You promised you would always be my friend, and I promised I would be, too.”

“Well… I was meaning to ask you something else, a much bigger promise…” Shiro said, standing up from his sitting position at the mantle and grabbing Keith’s hand to help him stand up.

“What do you mean?” Keith asked, confused.

“Keith Kogane…” Shiro started and got to his knees, taking out a black velvet box out of his pocket. “Would you give me the honor of letting me marry you?” and opened the box to show a black colored ring with a ruby on the top.

“You--- you sap!!” Keith said with a watery smile, tears freely running down his face “Of course I will!” and grabbed Shiro by his shirt to kiss him fiercely.

_“And I promised, too”_

**Author's Note:**

> hehe thanks for reading! Hope you liked it. Leaving a comment or Kudos would be very appreciated!


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